For decades the civil wars were presented as a “gentlemanly” conflict where both sides “played” by the rules of “civilised” warfare. But now we know the reality was very different.
In fact this was a protracted, bloody fight that disrupted, and at times, destroyed, the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children whether they were combatants or simply civilians trying to live in peace.
This was a was a protracted war fought beyond the well-known battlefields such as Naseby and Marston Moor whose horrors entered homes across the British Isles and left few if any, families untouched.
In this first programme, in this landmark series, specially commissioned for The World Turned Upside Down, distinguished historian, Peter Gaunt, Professor of History at the University of Chester, explores the bloody realities of the wars and their lasting impact on the lives of every family in Britain and Ireland.r, explores the bloody realities of the wars and their lasting impact on the lives of every family in Britain and Ireland.
